Gary Cawood, nationally recognized photographic artist and educator, will be the judge of the Redwood Art Association’s 60th “Fall Exhibition.” He’ll also present a three-day creative workshop Aug. 17 to 19 in Eureka.

This is a return visit for the Little Rock, Arkansas-based Cawood, whose color still life constructions from his “Excavation” and “Land Marks” series were presented at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in in Eureka in 2013.

Cawood looks forward to interacting with artists of any media in his “Object Lessons” workshop, which represents the third phase of his use of disrupted landscapes for creative expression. Participants in the workshop will use the land as stage set on which to create compositions incorporating found objects or those carried from other locations. Surface “ground plane” arrangements akin to collage or montage, along with sculptural or architectural constructions, will be explored.

“Emphasis is on the interaction of objects with carefully selected details from the sites. By including a diversity of objects and ideas … the imagery is enhanced,” Cawood wrote.

Participants will make digital photographs of their creations for on-site image evaluation and for later viewing and discussion. A slide lecture of works by artists who construct imagery for the camera will be shown. Samples of Cawood’s work will be on view in the RAA gallery. Boxed suppers will be included.

Cawood’s photographs show earth surfaces — cracked mud, shale, pebbles, and rock — into which discarded objects are positioned. Mergings, juxtapositions and camouflaging contribute to eccentric, ambiguous imagery. They are forms of montage and assemblage — temporary creations of surprising beauty considering the unlikely visual material: a saw blade with a fuzzy, shadowy edge; an abandoned toy airplane; a tape player in blues and grays; a work glove with a rusted tin.

Those are among Cawood’s “throwaways” posed for the camera. But, he also uses “the new and shiny, as well as the old and tattered” as illustrated by a bottomless, sharply defined transparent box. Shown jewel-like in a field of golden grass, it frames two small rocks. Like small weights, in colors harmonious with the yellow field, they anchor this exquisitely refined scene.

Conscious mimicking of “the haphazard look of the discarded” is seen in “Happy Valentine.” A valentine greeting on fabric is shown distorted and engulfed in rock and sand, suggesting its having been washed away, lost and forgotten far from its once intended place. But slender red ribbons emerge from the rocks, their satin surfaces glowing in ironic contrast to this otherwise woeful scene.

His images include compositions in which the contained object is inscrutable, while others, such as “Crushed Globe,” reveal identities slowly, creating a puzzling mixture of pathos, whimsy and despair as we recognize the abandoned stuff of our lives at the heart of these images. But somehow, the tragic and the hopeful seem to co-exist. It is Cawood’s keen sense of placement and gorgeous use of color that transform potentially jarring visual discord into compellingly harmonious imagery. His photographs are among the most thoughtful and inexplicably beautiful made in the past decade

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“‘Excavation’ is an ongoing body of photographs I began in 2006,” Cawood writes in his artist statement for “Excavation.”

“Since the natural landscape is considered expendable in our culture,” he said, “the surface scars we create seemed like an intriguing subject to explore. I selected sites that were excavated long ago … and soon began adding throwaways to the compositions. Like the land, much of the stuff we buy is considered disposable and makes its way to sites like these. The photographs utilize the scarred landscape as a context for the stuff we abandon.

“The word ‘excavation’ conjures up digging for some ancestral ruin … my purpose is to create a more poetic interpretation,” he writes. “I carefully select the items to be included in the compositions, (and) hope the range of my selections seem as quirky and mysterious as our mode of existence.

“Essentially,” he said, “I’m doing still-life, using mud, rocks, and ash as part of the setup. This staged approach … emphasized formal order. … But I also consciously mimic the haphazard look of the discarded … there seems to be a growing awareness of the havoc our lifestyles impose on the environment. I’m hopeful that a more sustainable lifestyle will emerge … and that future generations will have the wisdom to capitalize on the possibilities of less. Such a transformation would require a creative mind-set, a vision based on real needs and higher aspirations.”

Cawood’s career includes a degree in architecture, a Master of Fine Arts in photography and years as the head of the Photography Area at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, including teaching workshops in Prague. His photographs have been exhibited in over 60 solo shows and placed in numerous public collections.

His surreal black-and-white photographs are published in “The Watchman’s Room,” which will be for sale at the RAA Gallery, all proceeds as a gift to the Redwood Art Association.

Join Cawood for this unique workshop Aug. 17 to 19 from 2 to 9 p.m. Go to redwoodart.us for complete information. For more information about Cawood, go to garycawood.com.